Times are difficult for everyone at the moment, the world is beset by wars, disasters and countries on the verge of economic collapse.  All this makes the news, but also has a knock on effect on things that we take for granted but don’t often see!

A short while ago the news broke that one of the largest games companies in the industry Fantasy Flight Games was closing its video game development wing, Fantasy Flight Interactive and that its staff would be laid off across the board!

In a post to his LinkedIn account Fantasy Flight Interactive’s Studio Head Tim Gerritsen had this to say!

“It’s with great sadness that I have to report that the decision has been made to close Fantasy Flight Interactive next month. I’m proud of the team and the game we’ve dedicated ourselves to for the past few years. It’s a been an amazing journey with even more amazing people. I’m going to do my best to get my team placed in new positions. I have programmers, designers, artists, QA staff and a producer to get placed in new roles and will do my best to do so quickly. Additionally, I’m now open to new opportunities myself since I will also be out of a job.”

The loss of Fantasy Flight Interactive’s Studio will have a knock-on effect throughout the company and by the same standards in the industry itself!  It is not known yet if there will be further layoffs in the parent company which owns the rights to games based on several key franchses such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Marvel, though it is suspected to hit the company very hard.

Fantasy Flight is owned by Asmodee a large French publishing company, which also owns several other companies, including Atomic Mass Games, the creators of the excellent Marvel Crisis Protocol.  Hopefully, the effects will not affect to many with layoffs, and our thoughts are with everyone concerned at this sad time.